Ethan and Ehlana:
We didn’t set any school records today, but having four of the Grade Nine guys make the football team is close to that record; and Aiden and I are very happy to be joining Aaron on the team. Miles and Joshua are happy too – though Miles is also a bit disappointed that he won’t be the starting quarterback. He has talent, and might get there in another year or two, but he should be able to admit that Will Carter is significantly-better at that job and he’s also earned the Captain’s job and deserves both. The announcements came this morning, so the hopefuls that didn’t make the team were done by mid-morning; and then we got to work on getting ready for our first game tomorrow night. There is some pressure that comes with experiencing the time crunch, but there are advantages to being a junior Magi Master for memorizing all details thrown at us ranging from information on our opponent to offensive and defensive formations and plays. We had some extra coaching from Lee Landry and expect to have more of that support from Kyle and Tim – and maybe even from Michael – during the season, but we’ll keep you posted on that along with the news from practices and all of the games. Coach Robinson is very happy; so our expectations are high for our team’s chances this year.
Moving along, Ehlana’s cheer squad practice was only for the morning, and she had fun with that, but then she got drafted for yard chores for the rest of the day – and Naomi joined her to work together at multiple homes. I feel a bit bad about not helping them this afternoon while busy with football, but then I got drafted to work after dinner through to dusk so that all of the prep work for the holiday weekend got finished today. Ehlana and I won’t have time for that tomorrow with practices and that first game; and we also won’t even be able to welcome our weekend guests or hang out very much with our visiting cousins. That will be a change for us every fall during our high school years, but then that’s just one of many changes as we all grow up and add next-gen kids to the family.
Ehlana and I didn’t book another co-ed sleepover celebration tonight, but that was mostly because Naomi and Aiden were booked to help their own families tonight while we were busy too; and we should all get more sleep tonight ahead of our first football game day! That’s also why we’ll keep the world and political news report as-short as we can; so let’s get right to it.
Let’s start with one of the top national news stories of the past two days – the Catholic school shooting in Minneapolis. There is a transgender component to this story, but we aren’t going to get into that the way the media is doing; since the true issue should obviously be the serious mental illness of the shooter. We’re horrified by what this person did, killing two children and injuring seventeen others before killing himself; and our hearts go out to the victims, their families, and friends. These shootings should never happen; and our leaders at all levels need to get serious about solving the mental health issues that are leading to all of these attacks. Ehlana and I do not want to minimize this incident, but do want to point out that while this kind of attack is comparatively-rare in the rest of the world; bad things happen at schools in many other countries for other reasons – like fanatics attacking schools to keep girls from being educated at all for just one example.
That school shooting is also tiny compared to the ongoing horrors in Ukraine and the Middle East – though there are some links that can be pointed out. Attacks on religion are one of those connections. In the Middle East, Christians are being attacked from multiple sides – including from Israel while the Israeli army also attacks Muslims in a handful of countries while continuing the genocide in Gaza. Western news won’t report on Ukraine’s crackdown on the Russian Orthodox Church as they’ve worked to destroy what had been the largest church in the country. The Orthodox churches are related to the Catholic church even though they split and moved in different directions a thousand years or so ago; so it seems insane to us – or evil – for the Ukrainian leaders to persecute Christians in a supposedly-Christian country. That’s minor compared to all of the war horrors in the country; so we shouldn’t be surprised that the insanity of continuing a war that is destroying your own country has spread to most facets of Ukrainian society.
Let’s stop there, since I’m feeling the urge to really get going on a rant. Ehlana and I need to get extra sleep tonight, since we likely won’t get much down time through the weekend. Sure, we can cheat with Magi-powered self-healing – and probably will, but why let facts get in the way of saving you from that rant? Stay tuned, since we really hope that our summer wrap-up will be amazing; and we’ll get some rest and be back at full-power by morning to be ready for all of those adventures!
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
